Mother's Intuition Leads to Discovery of Triple Murder at Daycare

I think we've all had those mom moments when we're glad we trusted our intuition. For most of us it's smallish things, like taking our child to the doctor because they seem "off" only to find out they have a raging ear infection. For a mother in Minnesota this week, however, following her gut very likely saved her child from unthinkable horrors.

According to Newser, the woman (who isn't being named), went to drop off her toddler at Visions and Butterflies Child Care Monday morning. As she was entering, something about a man standing outside gave her pause. Brushing it off, she took her child inside and left. Only she couldn't let go of a nagging feeling that something was wrong ... and she was right.

Not long thereafter she called the daycare and was speaking to someone when the line went dead. Freaked out even more by that point, I'm sure, she headed back to the daycare where she found a horrific scene -- the dead bodies of three adults, who had apparently been shot in a triple murder.

Fortunately, the 3-year-old was unharmed, so she grabbed the child (there were no other children present) and called police. As of yet, the case is under investigation, and there are no suspects.

It's chilling, and my heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims. But all I can think about is how fortunate this child is that his mother listened to her intuition. The things that could have happened to a toddler in a home filled with only dead bodies are too awful to imagine. I also imagine, however, that she's beating herself up for not listening to it sooner.

I drop my daughter off at her preschool each morning, and there are few days that some sort of horrible what if doesn't cross mind when I leave her, and I want to run back in, grab her and take her home with me. So I think it's sometimes difficult to differentiate between typical semi-neurotic worrying that plagues many mothers and a flat-out gut feeling that something is wrong. I hope, if I'm ever in a dire situation, I'll just know, but there's no way to determine for sure.

Could she have changed the scenario if she'd listened to her gut sooner? We'll never know, but it is a good reminder to us all to really pay attention to our instincts and trust them. More often than not, the worst thing that will happen if we do and we're wrong is that people will think we're a little crazy. That, I can live with.